"The Great Adventures of the Gold Red Rocket" with Interview

As always I received an invite from Chris Carambot; guitarist of Millsted via comment on Myspace, which tends to be the original trend these days for event invites. Nonetheless I was convinced to come by Millsted’s studio because, at the bottom of the invitation, almost acting as a fine print in a legal document, the bottom of the page read: “This is a personal invite so please know that we want YOU there”. If you ask me that is a pretty convincing statement, plus I was due for a Millsted rehearsal/show, it’s been so long since I’ve been around these guys.

Friday, December 26th the date of the event. As I walked out of the elevator and into the hallway, I was greeted by Pete and Sam, along with some smoke in the air, never mind the kind of smoke, but lets just say that Jimi Hendrix would have felt at home if he were in my presence. By the time me and a couple of friends showed up, there were only about six or maybe even seven people there, Rob and Chris were inside just jamming out in their rehearsal space, this was roughly around 9:00 PM. I was curious to know where Kelvin was; it turned out he had a personal situation going on where he had to stop by the emergency room at a local hospital, (don’t worry, it was nothing serious). One of the people with me was Astronaut Down’s drummer Phil Lherisson. Here’s the thing about Phil, as soon as he see’s a drum kit he hops right on it and starts going nuts, you have to admire his perseverance. As soon as he got on Pete’s drum kit he started doing what I like to call “wowing” people in the room. He seems to have that effect. Pete walked in and started playing some nice heavy riffs on Chris’s guitar, with Eric (ex Near Forever bassist) jamming out with the guys on Sam’s bass. After a while it somehow became only Sam and Rob jamming with Phil, the entire session lasted damn near 40 minutes all together.

After about two hours, eight people turned into about thirty. Nice turn out huh? I’d say so. Before Kelvin’s arrival there was a woman that walked in by the name of Xio with a nice handy MacBook and played as the room D.J. She had her Mac plugged into the P.A. system playing some Dance tunes. She was actually invited by Chris himself to come DJ the Millsted shin-dig. As far as her DJ set goes, it was pretty damn good, she knew how to get everyone going, She played everything from: “This is the Radio Clash” from The Clash to “Bonafied Lovin’” from Chromeo. She even played some favorites of mine like “Slow Hands” from Interpol and “She’s in Parties” from Bauhaus. Overall she did a great job. Slowly but surely people from the hallway started seeping into the rehearsal space, trickling in, and dancing their way in… including Kelvin himself, which turned out to be a nice entrance. Still sporting his orange medical bracelet from the emergency room, he wore it as some sort of fashion statement for the night. Besides doing a little dancing and drinking, he was multitasking by doing some band stuff, like setting up his keyboard and equipment. Then and there I knew that the time has finally come. Like usual it was a great time at the Millsted studio, with the occasional smokes and drinks. Speaking of smokes and drinks, Pete was on cloud nine, he had a lot to drink but he did a good job as to not showing it, but he was completely open about the fact that he had a little bit much to drink. He was afraid of screwing up the set, and he wasn’t making any promises.

After a while the dancing, and the P.A. music ceased. Finally Millsted were about to play, and the anticipation was surely there (no pun intended to “The Anticipation Station”). Millsted started their set off strong like always and right then and there that excitement of a Millsted based crowd overwhelmed the room, it’s what everyone came to see. The songs in their set varied from old favorites to new tunes, the new stuff consisted of: “Coffin of Love” which has an upbeat tempo, along with an insane grove to it. “New Japan” is another potential hit; this song has an amazing ambient guitar tone, with mellow echoing vocals, which fits perfect with the song vibe. To add to the list of new songs is a piano driven song called “Belgium”; this song is a brilliant stripped down song what more can I say? Something not really done in Millsted’s past, nonetheless it’s a great move. The last new song they played is my new personal favorite, and I’m not just saying that, this song might be the new “10:43”; the title of this song is “The Gold Red Rocket (I Got Soul)". Oh man, I’m not sure where to start; the song starts out fast paced, something you would open up a set to in Madison Square Garden in front of thousands of screaming maniacs. Towards the middle of the song it goes into a grove that slips to a sing a long, which gets their audience into the theme of the song. This song is very well constructed, and I mean very well, I cannot stress that enough. Please take a listen, you won’t regret it, and if you do regret it please crumble up this article and throw it in the garbage, you might not deserve to read the rest of this article/interview. In simple terms, this song is the shit and I stand corrected. Old favorites included; “Dirty Elvis”, “10:43”, and the last song Millsted performed was “Car Bomb Derby 05”, which was played very well with the exception that Millsted hasn’t played that song in over a year. Those are Millsted classics that need no introduction. Just to add on to the excitement; in good fashion Pete’s drumstick cracked open near the ending of the song, the force of the right stick being shattered on crash cymbals nearly destroyed the drumstick, Pete threw it somewhere into the crowd and just scooped up another stick. By the time the song was over Pete through that stick across the room in rockstar style, which became a great ending to a great set. We’ll have to see what happens next for Millsted, and we are eagerly awaiting Millsted’s next move. Like always, that’s Millsted’s story and that’s one of many reasons why they have such a large fan base, they know how to keep their audience wanting more, and they know how to make them anticipate their next move. Millsted does not keep their fans at bay, they just bring them into their world and that’s Millsted’s reasons for their successful growth. Last but not least, please look out for Millsted’s Dirty Elvis E.P. coming out sometime in March.



Interview from Chris from Millsted

January 25th, 8:00PM Phone rings… starts with the usual what’s up how’s it going small talk; but we’ll go ahead and skip that good stuff.

Jason: “The Great Adventures of the Gold Red Rocket”, when is the expected release date?

Chris: I’m going to say the summer, but I’m not 100% sure. It will be done soon, it’s going to be done by the end of this week actually, and we’re going to release the Dirty Elvis EP before that to get some hype about it, and maybe release a track through Afro Punk as an exclusive track from the record. We’re supposed to be doing a South by Southwest tour in the summer; I would hope it would be out by the summer. The record is going to be done but the art is going to take a while, the company we are releasing it with, it’s all up to them I guess; but I would say summer, it would be a great summer record.

Jason: What kind of vibe does this new record bring to the table, compared to previous recordings?

Chris: It’s a record. It’s a full record, you know? I think it’s our best recording to date. The vibe is, very cohesive. It’s our real first album compared to the last record we released. It’s very cohesive, all the songs go into each other, there’s a theme to it. It’s definitely a concept record; it’s very in the vain of Punk Rock in the 70’s I guess and the late 60’s brit rock, 60’s soul, you know like your Marvin Gaye and your Sam Cooke, compared with The Beatles and The Clash and something like Sonic Youth from the early 90’s, late 80’s. We’re all very proud of the record, it’s something we have huge expectations for, and we’re just trying to change the way people are listening to music now. I don’t know, music is dead and if we can get ourselves out there for some of these kids to listen to, I think they would be amazed that somebody’s doing something like this, something that nobody’s really heard of. It’s a work of art and that’s the vibe of it, it’s a great record and it’s coming out great.

Jason: I get the impression that great things are coming Millsted’s way. To be blunt, is Millsted soon to be signed to a label? And what is the possibility of this happening?

Chris: Yes and no, it’s more of a partnership than anything else. Record labels are dead, and record labels will never ever pay attention to us. What we’re doing is we’re having someone helping us out with this and it’s pretty much like a 50/50 thing where they’ll put out the record and just basically try to move us on to the next step. I guess this is a pretty big step; somebody is going to help us and support us. They’ll promote our record to the press and all that, so yeah we do have help now. They’re basically doing this to get to the point where we want to be for maybe the next record, if there is a next record possible depending on how well this is received in this country and overseas. So it’s a label but it’s not a label, its kind of weird. It’s more of a company supporting us. Their working with three bands and we’re one of them and they’re going to help put our record out. The Dirty Elvis EP is basically about the four best songs off Umm Yea, we’re putting that out our selves in stores for promotion, radio, and press, it’s going to be a limited quantity. That will just support what we’re doing next, there’s going to be this whole campaign on it. The Gold Red Rocket is a concept record/children’s book, it’s not really intended for children but the whole campaign is called “What would you Build” and starting in the Spring time your going to hear a lot from us, so that whole campaign will be starting then and hopefully things turn out the way we want to.

Jason: Sounds like things are progressing pretty well, it seems like you guys are really satisfied as to the direction you guys are going.

So tell me a little bit about your producer Dan Countant, and why was he the chosen one for this upcoming Millsted record?

Chris: Dan… (sighs) Dan is a genius. If you go onto his Myspace page and listen to the stuff that he has done, his sound is amazing; it’s something new, something we wanted. Umm Yea was just a collogue of noise and it wasn’t mixed well, it didn’t come out the way we would’ve liked it to come out but at the time we didn’t have the money so we kind of just settled for it. But with this record the songs came together so well, I would say we wrote that record in the span of two months. What was happening was, we were hearing our new music differently from our old music and it’s not as heavy or chunky as the last record. We’ve all been listening to awesome old punk rock records like; London Calling… London Calling is what I would love this record to be like. We wanted that sound, that authentic sound where everything sounds so clear and not so noisy and Dan has that. We actually worked with Dan about three years ago. We did a record that was never released, we never finished it because it was garbage basically, and it was just really bad. It wasn’t his fault. We love his work ethic, he’s a real producer as oppose to producers, engineers and everybody that we worked with before we produced it ourselves, because it was our songs and they weren’t very experienced with recording or whatnot. Everybody that we worked with before that really didn’t know what they were doing. We wanted somebody who had more input and somebody with the “ear” and to know what the hell we were doing. So I called Dan sometime last Fall and told him we wanted him to work on the record. He came by and he heard the songs and we kept on sending him Youtube stuff. We’ve been playing the full record for almost a year now, so you can basically listen the whole record on Youtube, the whole record is up live. So we kept on sending him this and sending our opinions and he added the right things. Like Pete went in there and he recorded drums on this old 1970’s Slingerland drum set which is the thickest most classic sound you can get out of a drum set, it had worn out wood and it sounds great. We’re working with different amps, like vintage amps, we got organs on this, we’re using a baby grand piano, and we’re using horn players. So when we come back in April… because we won’t be doing any shows until then, we’ll have seven people in this band and it’s going to be fucking full and fucking amazing when we play live. We just can’t wait till it’s done so we can hear the end product. What we’re going to do (pauses then chuckles)… well what I’M going to do is basically hand out the record for free to all my friends and all my peers and other bands that we’ve known; just for them to give us their opinion on the record and whatnot, because we don’t want to be local hero’s anymore, we’re so tired of it. We want to get out there and we don’t want to be these local bands that keep on playing these local shows, we’ve been together for five years, and I think it’s time for the next step. Not to say we were lazy or anything I just think that we weren’t ready for it you know? It took us a long time to get to the point of Umm Yea, which I still think it’s great; I still love playing those songs and won’t stop playing a good handful of them, but this is something different, in a different direction that we’re going in. It’s more listenable to the commercial audience, well we’ll see about that because everybody who’s listening to music now, Rock n’ Roll is fucking dead and these kids ears are… it’s just horrible what’s out on the radio right now and what these kids are listening to; there’s nothing to think about, it’s just there on the table for you to take in and like. There’s nothing on the radio like when I grew up in the early 90’s there was great shit on the radio, you got your Nirvana, you got your Pearl Jam, you got your Soundgarden, like all this great, great, great music; and it was commercial. There’s nothing wrong about THAT being commercial, it’s just now the shit on the radio that is commercial is just bubble gum bullshit right now. What we want to do is kill that bullshit, just like my favorite band The Beatles killed it, and the Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Clash; they killed all that AM, Blue Oyster Cult crap that was on the radio in the 70’s, and Nirvana killed all of the hair metal. So what we want to do is kill the fucking emo, metal hardcore bullshit and get that shit out of kid’s heads because they’re going to grow up not being artistic. I don’t know there’s just no art in it, it’s just a factory of bullshit basically. It’s lost art; there is no artistic value in it, it’s just an empty canvas. When I was thirteen I heard Nirvana and I never heard anything like it, and what they did for me is opened me up to the shit they were influenced by, then I got it you know? I listen to a band like The Pixies, that’s who I’m influenced by and The Pixies are one of my favorite bands in the fucking world right now, and somebody like Fall Out Boy who are they going to say their influenced by? Crap. Nobody. Nobody important in Rock n’ Roll; Rock n’ Roll is so dead right now. When you see actors like… who’s the guy from 30 Seconds to Mars?

Jason: Jared Leto?

Chris: Yeah Jared Leto making this horrible music. He’s a great actor, don’t get me wrong I love his acting but he’s fucking horrible and his band is horrible. But you know what? People are buying this shit. Their fooling all of these kids and fucking people into… I don’t know its just there’s no art in it. Even the bands that are independent now and trying to be so artful, they’re trying too hard to be artful and it’s just all bullshit. We’re putting out a product record, I know that the music industry has changed in the last fifteen years or whatever, it’s hard to sell records now; that’s why we’re bringing out this book, to get people to see the art because we’re combining art and music and it goes hand-in-hand. The concept of the book is so great and the record matches the art. We just want people to think. Nobody thinks anymore when they listen to music and it’s horrible. I haven’t listened to a new band that I really loved in such a long time, I’ve been listening to older records and trying to get into older music. There’s nothing, music is so jaded right now. We’re reverting back to the 70’s punk scene because I got really heavy into The Clash this year even though I was always into The Clash, but I started to pop it on. I remembered how much I loved London Calling, when we were making this record I was like oh man we need horns, we need organs, like London Calling is such a great piece of art; it’s probably is one of the last greatest Rock n’ Roll records to ever come out. So what we’re trying to do is bring Rock n’ Roll back. I just hope that we can get out there so people can listen to us and not look at us because we don’t have tight jeans; you know we’re a Rock n’ Roll band. People can look at us and be like ahh whatever, because we don’t have the “image”. We’re just five dudes who play really good music and I hope people can get pass the image bullshit and listen to the music for what it is, and we’re really proud of it, not to sound egotistical or anything but what we’re doing right now is putting out a great, great record. I sit back and I listen to all of the songs and I can’t believe that I’m part of it. It’s just really shocking to me how good this record is. We’ve been playing the songs from Umm Yea for the last three years and it took a long time for us to get a crowd, finally people are starting to understand that record. The only thing I’m kind of scared about is when we throw this record out; people would get a little confused. Their all great songs, there’s only nine songs on the record, the last song is about twelve minutes long, it’s a big epic thing. It’s about forty-five minutes and change; it’s not going to be short at all.

Jason: It sounds like your definitely proud of just being part of Millsted in general and just being part of this project.

Chris: Yeah I mean we went through some rough times in the last year, so many times we almost broke up because we just couldn’t take the fact that nobody were listening to us. We had a lot of hard times; we were getting sick of nobody paying attention to us. We were still going to brake up, but around the end of the year somebody saved us, the company that we’re working with, I can’t really expose who that is now but their company who’s working with us just believes in us and wants to help us out in a huge way, so we didn’t break up and the fact that we were so proud of these songs, just for them to go to waste is sad.

Jason: In December of 2008 you guys announced that your drummer Pete Belloli was making a departure from the band. December 26th was supposed to be his last rehearsal with Millsted. I see that he’s still in the picture; did you guys convince him to stay?

Chris: I think the music convinced him, I guess when he started doing the tracks, he just had a change of heart and the meetings that we had with this company kind of made him realize this is what he loves, he loves to play drums. He’s the best drummer I ever worked with in my life; he’s a great drummer. To me he’s better than most skilled drummers that I know that probably can be more technical and probably know more about the drums but don’t have the heart, you know? We didn’t want to see him go, we didn’t know what we were going to do without him. We’re very lucky that he’s staying.

Jason: Keeping tabs on Millsted, I’ve noticed that you guys are using the same producer, but you seem to be migrating in between studios, why is that?

Chris: (Laughs) The first time, the dates got crossed up and the studio that we were supposed to record in Queens got booked. So we needed to do this quick, so we had to go upstate with an old friend of mine, he was in this band called Life Before This. He opened up a studio upstate; we went in sometime in late December in the middle of the blizzard upstate, we recorded these tracks in a bind. We had the other dates in Queens booked already so we came back here closer to home, we didn’t want to travel back upstate with all of our equipment and whatnot. So we’re finishing the guitars and the bass, and the organs and keyboards here this week. Then we’re going back upstate, not too far upstate for the weekend for Kelvin’s vocals because we’re doing it at Dan’s home studio. We’re supposed to come back here for one more date to do the horn thing, and brass, saxophone stuff. We should be done by February 8th; well the whole record should be tracked, and then get ready for the mixing part of it.

Jason: What’s Millsted’s set looking like for the next show?

Chris: I really couldn’t even tell you (laughs). A lot of the record I would say, 7 songs from the record at least. We picked four or five songs from Umm Yea that we still loved and that’s popular with the audience. Songs like 10:43 I’ll never stop playing, because it is my favorite song that we have and favorite song I’ve ever wrote. I guess that song puts Millsted in a nutshell; like if you never heard us before and you heard 10:43, that’s pretty much Millsted right there. As far as the old hard heaver stuff, that’s pretty much done for.

Jason: I guess the last thing to ask you before I wrap it up would be; is there anything that you want to say? Something you would like to get out there?

Chris: You know what… lets just let the music speak for itself, that’s pretty much it. Open up your minds and stop listening this crap that people in the media are trying to feed you, listen to something real and that’s what we’re about. It’s heart.

*Millsted’s Myspace: www.myspace.com/millsted

**Dan Countant’s Myspace: www.myspace.com/dancoutantmix

***Photography credit from: Ed Marshall Photography

****Ed Marshall Photography Myspace: www.myspace.com/edmarshall

Go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-Jason Franquiz

Millsted “Umm Yea” (Song Collections)

It was about a year ago when I visited the Millsted studio and interviewed them, since then there’s been little change to the life of Millsted as a band, but there is some change pertaining to their direction. They still maintain that Millsted sound but that sound is slowing down just a bit, which by the way isn’t a bad thing whatsoever. In other words they are kind of walking away from the punk/hardcore scene, I’m not even sure if that’s considered a real genre but in the Millsted world… it a little genre in its own, well that statement is pertaining to the brand new stuff they are putting out there which isn’t even completely recorded yet, this is not about the “Umm Yea” album with consist of pretty heavy stuff. Well anyway this time around my intension was not to interview them for the simple fact this time I wanted to aim all of my concentration on reviewing the newest album which was released January, 16, 2008, I wanted to center my attention on that rather than throw a interview in there; also to see what they had in store for the brand new work coming out which is actually currently in the process of being recorded. Just like last year, I was invited to Millsted’s studio by guitarist Chris Caramboti once again; but this time around it was a much warmer day rather than last year, aside from all of that this is what I came up with later that night…
Starting off with the “Umm Yea” collection; I call this record a collection instead of a full length only because that’s what Millsted calls this record, it even says it on the back cover of the album booklet… and I quote “The CD you have in your hands is a collection of songs that spun five years of a band. We consider this more of a collection than a full length”. This is a very interesting statement considering the fact that there are old re-recorded songs from the past years along with some new stuff, an example of this is songs like “Sad Satan” and The Culprit” two old songs but yet re-recorded for this collection, great concept. One song on this album that I consider a personal hit is “Dirty Elvis”, personal hit you ask? What I mean by that is the fact of the matter is “Dirty Elvis” is a hit with a lot of people I know around me (personally); though I have to admit it’s a very attractive song. As for the rest of the tracks on “Umm Yea” they can be very diverse with the selection of song structure and setting with some nice guitar ambiance from time to time and with a lot of these songs you can actually dance to them! One thing that’s highly noticeable if you’re the type to pay attention to detail is how powerful and advanced drummer (Pete Belloli) new drum tracks are in these newly recorded songs, it just blew me away and I was very impressed. When listening to these somewhat new Millsted songs you can immediately catch a sense the bands originality, just like always when they put out something new.
Trust me, I’m a big fan of music sharing i.e. Limewire and such programs, but I’ve always said that if you really dig a band and if you can really respect them as musicians then you better shell out some cash to buy their release and support them by cashing in to have the privilege to listen to some good musicianship, case in point “Umm Yea”; they are only charging $5.99 on Snocap for this 13 track album, I highly suggest you spend your hard earned money and order yourself a copy, I bet you’ll think it’s worth it. Once again the guys of Millsted decided to with Producer David Andronico just like they did for the EP “4 songs” back in 2007, this little collection is very well recorded with a lot of work put into it. In terms of working with people Millsted has the right idea and it definitely shows.
Moving forward to Millsted’s brand new songs which are in the process of being recorded, well more of a “sneak peek” of what’s coming up. These new breed of songs are just a bit slower, cutting out the hardcore vibe, and as strange as it may sound they are also supporting a West Coast California rock kind of sound while maintaining the downtown New York swagger sound as Ironic as that may sound, even more of a reason to listen to these guys, because it’s just really original stuff and I cannot emphasize that enough. So go ahead and look out for it, it’s currently in the process of the tail end of the recording stages, from what I am aware of there is no set release date yet and this may actually be a concept album… very exciting.


Overall it looks like some good stuff coming up for Millsted so keep your eye out for them; they have some shows lined up, as listed here:



(Note): Scheduled show for The Snitch Bar for May, 16 has been cancelled due to Snitch closing down. (R.I.P. fun times at Snitch).




May 17 2008 8:00P
Ace Of Clubs
NY, New York
Jun 21 2008 1:00P
URB ALT Fest 08 Launch at The Gatehouse - Harlem Stages
New York, New York
Jun 28 2008 1:00P
Verus Fest at Luna Lounge
Williamsburg/Brooklyn, New York

Go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-JasonFranquiz

Rekindling the Love of Music

We are all aware that NYC Music Review has been on hiatus mode for just a little while because of some conflicting priority changes lately. I thought it would be appropriate if I come back to earth with something that has been a thorn to my side lately, something I’ve been itching to write about. This “thorn on my side” is also known as New York City band NearForever, don’t worry it’s not as bad as it may sound, I don’t have any animosity towards this band, actually the thorn is the separation of NF back in fall of 2007; separation as in there is no official word that the four year old band has dismembered, it’s just that every member of NF are working on their own individual projects. Randall McFadden (Vocalist) is basically traveling all over the U.S. perusing his acting career, Mike Vignola (Guitarist) which is the last original member of NF joined Connecticut based band The Second, Eric Velasco (Bassist) is now perusing the family life, and last but not least Phillip Lherisson is now drumming for Brooklyn based band Astronaut Down.
Taking a glance at NearForever’s Myspace page I couldn’t it help notice the headline reading: "the well is drying... but we will return..." leaving me to assume the meaning behind those wisely chosen words may mean that they are taking a really long break and eventually getting back together, or maybe it can mean that NF is coming back but only this time with new members. I don’t necessary know what that quote means exactly but whatever the case maybe, from what I see NF is not officially done and I hope I’m not wrong. There is reason to believe that NF is not officially done because their Myspace page is not dead in terms of updates and changes, I find that every month or so something changes to the site, top friends, old songs being put up, photos, and even blogs; there was actually a blog posted on January 30th of 2008 pertaining to proceeds from (Snocap) will be donated to various charity organizations.
There are many things that I miss about NearForever’s sound, like in the E.P. that was released back in 2005 (Few and Far Between) there were songs such as “Explosions” and “Intervention” with more of an early non-experimental sound with the great “Vignola scream” as we use to call it, it’s pretty self explanatory just take a listen to the background screams in the record. Also back then there were two guitarists. I love the E.P. put out in 2006 (On Borrowed Time) which had more of an experimental kind of vibe, out of the two records, the one thing that has never changed is with NF is Randall’s spoken words during songs which is pretty unique if you ask me. Bottom line, it would be nice for it to be like old times, I would hate to see a band like this to go to waste. Then maybe the thorn in my side will finally be taken out.

"I asked for an education, they handed me a gun"-Start Over

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-Jason Franquiz

Trash Bar Show Review 3/27 & 3/29

Trash Bar 3/27 (Tuesday) & 3/29 (Thursday) Show Review

Circa 8:00 on a Tuesday night there was a smell of the Sunset Strip in Williamsburg, Brooklyn because Los Angeles band Open Hand has just arrived, Open Hand (Trustkill Records) had a pretty decent show on March 3/27 with three other unknown bands playing along the other time slots. It was a bit of a cold night and the Trash Bar was reasonably crammed in with people considering the fact that it was a Tuesday night. I had a pretty interesting conversation with a few friends of mine while waiting around for Open Hand to set up their equipment, it turns out that these friends of mine where fans of Open Hand… old Open Hand I should say, when it comes up to listening to Open Hand these friends of mine are a bit outdated, it is true that over the years the sound of Open Hand has changed. Now with a more easy going sound they seem to support the California beach music scene vibe with their latest record “You and Me”, which by the way my friends do not support. They were a little surprised that the latest album that they are not a fan of was released back in February of 2005. Open Hand has written some new songs which they performed and they are also available on Open Hand’s Myspace site, but they have yet to give out any information about releasing a new record. When Open Hand hopped on stage after setting up they did a long guitar intro going into the beginning of “Hard Night” which was pretty impressive everyone seemed to be into it, after their opening song it wasn’t so smooth though, in turns out that there was suppose to be a transition between the song “Hard Night” into another song but it was abruptly stopped due to a technical issue with the drummer needing a replacement bass drum pedal, which was quickly scooped up from the house equipment. Besides that little mishap the rest of the show went fairly good. 95 percent of the songs they played were from the latest album “You and Me”; they only played one of their new songs which are available to listen to on their Myspace site (www.myspace.com/openhand). Overall it was a satisfying show; it was pretty exciting to see Open Hand perform in general with their liveliness on stage with male and female singers and very supportive fans.
Moving on to Thursdays show (3/29) let me start off with this Near Forever update: because of some inside issues with Near Forever they dropped out of the line-up about a week before the March 29th show they were scheduled to play, so in-turn Purchase, New York band Planeside snagged up the 8:45 timeslot. Planeside is a three piece band signed to Indie label Exotic/Surreal Records who did quite a good job for a “last minute fill in”. According to Mike Vignola guitarist of Near Forever; the band wasn’t ready for the show and he wants to make a good impression for their 2007 comeback. In other words they need more work before they hit the stage again since it has been about 4-5 months before they played their last show. Near Forever currently does not have any shows lined up as of yet and will be working through some rehearsals and maybe some changes before they get back on to the band’-wagon. On the other hand scheduled Headlining band Millsted became no shows with out calling, texting or contacting anyone, including the head of Sub Rosa Party and Sneakthief singer Tony. There were quite a few people who showed up just to see Millsted play their set, and a lot of people including some other band members were pretty disappointed, it seems the Tony of Sub Rosa was also disappointed. It turns out the reason why Millsted became no shows that night is because 4 of the band members were arrested for unknown reasons, they sent out a bulletin on Myspace apologizing to the people that showed up to see them and they also apologized to Sub Rosa founder Tony and vaguely explained the reasons for them not appearing without a trace.

In a nutshell that was the Trash Bar report for the end of March...

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-Jason Franquiz

The place to be “The Trash Bar”

There are many… many rock clubs that make up NYC and some of Brooklyn, one of those clubs is the Trash Bar which is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. If anything it’s not much of a well known club in New York compared to such clubs as CBGB’s or the Continental which are both presently closed down by the way, but it seems to be making its landmark for people to flock to in recent times. As I said before the club is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the atmosphere outside of this club is simply amazing. Outside of the Trash Bar in a 4 block radius all around there is a very artsy vibe in the adjacent neighborhoods, on a good day (in terms of weather) you’ll see people walking around with their significant others, people walking around with their downtown Manhattan style and swagger with headphones walking from the local bar/restaurant, a art gallery here and there, a few mom & pop local bookstores, a café here and there, a few Indie record stores and finally if you walk far enough you’ll catch a great view of the Williamsburg bridge which leads into downtown Manhattan. In some ways the Williamsburg Bridge has served as an umbilical chord from downtown Manhattan to Brooklyn feeding Williamsburg some of Manhattans qualities.
The Trash Bar is starting to live up to its saying which is “Brooklyn’s best music venue” lately there have been a lot of well know bands to play this venue, and at the end of March this will be the place to be at with three incredible shows lined up running down the end of the month. March 27th Los Angeles, C.A. band Open Hand will be going on at 9:00pm with a 40 minute set, which doesn’t do justice for this band. The show opens at 8:00pm with an admission of only $5 at the door; this should be a very entertaining show. Fast forward to March 29th with the show opening at 8:00pm, this is going to be a Sub Rosa Sponsored show with 4 incredible bands making up the line-up for that evenings show, starting off with Near Forever going on at 8:45pm, this is going to be Near Forever’s first show back since late 2006 so if your showing up give them the warm welcome that they deserve, following that set will be Tony’s band Sneakthief going on at 9:30pm, Tony (lead singer of Sneakthief) is the mastermind behind the Sub Rosa Party. After Sneakthief previously reviewed band Devola will be heading on with a set time of 11:00pm, and last but not least to headline the show is going to be NYC band Millsted which I interviewed back in early February. This should be one of the best shows of the year with one of the best line-ups I’ve seen so far, this show is a must go to, you can bet your ass that I will be attending this show, besides there will be a open bar from 8-9pm and the cover charge is only $6 at the door. To round it all up March 30th New York band Jinn Abide will be playing the Trash Bar with a set time of 9:00pm with a open bar from 8-9pm and a cover charge of $7 at the door after the entire show there is going to be Rock Star Karaoke with free admission around 1:00am.
All three of these shows should be marked on your calendar and something to look forward to. It seems like the Trash Bar is the place to be and they are living up to their club saying. Its still too early to tell but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Trash Bar becomes this years Lit Lounge, the Lit Lounge had a good run in 2006 and it seems that the Trash Bar is out to a good early start. If you’ve never been to the Trash bar then SHAME ON YOU! No but seriously if you’ve never been to the Trash Bar then don’t worry I will provide you with some useful directions and information. The Trash Bar is located on 256 Grand St between Driggs Ave and Roebling St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718-599-1000). By train, take the L to Bedford Ave. By car: From Manhattan, take the far right outside lane of the Williamsburg bridge and take the first exit wrapping all the way around to the right onto Broadway. Take the first right available onto Bedford Ave. and proceed to Grand St. Turn right at Grand St. and the Trash Bar will be a block and a half down on the right. Last but not least if you need a cab around the area the number is (718) 387-2222, Trash Bar’s website is: www.thetrashbar.com make sure to check it out.

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-Jason Franquiz

Has the Live Acoustic Setting Lost its Integrity?

This week’s column is not an interview nor it is a NYC band review, this column is going to be just a little bit different; in fact it’s going to be a bit more interactive by opening up the comments section this time. This entry is going to be more of an opinionated column about the acoustic setting in live situations and has it lost its integrity? You can address this topic in either comments, questions or if you want both. It doesn’t really matter but if you want people to know who you are then do so and put down your name and e-mail for feedback, if not just leave it as anonymous.

Going to enough shows and researching enough I’ve noticed that there aren’t enough acoustic shows, if any at all lately. To be honest acoustic shows isn’t what brings in the business at local clubs especially with the Rock/Indie genre, but one of the main questions is: is it even important? Important for the band? Important for the audience and/or for exposure? Converting regular songs in acoustic songs have been around for decades and if you ask me I believe that it’s a smart move for the artist. So why aren’t bands trying to achieve this goal, and also why isn’t it a concentration? As far as I know there isn’t any aim whatsoever for bands to; A.) Put on an acoustic show, and B.) Release an acoustic album and/or acoustic songs. The last “acoustic” show I ever remember witnessing was back in early 2006 and I wrote about this in Devola’s review back in mid January, but here’s the catch; as I said back in that article the only reason why Devola’s set was a acoustic set is because it turned into a emergency “strip down to acoustic” situation since the show was already booked, but prior to the show Devola went through some band difficulties which skimmed down Devola to only two official members around the time of the already booked show, therefore it didn’t count as being a intentional acoustic show.
An important element that is great about acoustic shows is the private show environment, a lot of these stripped down acoustic shows are held within a private show with a MTV unplugged sort of environment and what I mean by that is details such as a candle lit stage, plants floating around somewhere, listeners sitting on the floor instead of standing around avoiding the occasional mosh pits etc… so why is the acoustic setting important? Think of your favorite song from a local “underground” band (I know it’s hard but give it a try); now think about that song being played acoustically, I’m willing to bet that you and many other people would be interested in listening to something like that. In my opinion (since this is a opinionated article) I think that acoustic shows and albums are very important for both the artist and for the listener, some might not admit it but there are a lot of people that thrive for the wood, referring to the acoustic instruments of course, get your mind out of the gutter you pervert.
Let’s take a look how acoustics can benefit the artist. For one it brings a lot of interest when it comes to the bands following, especially if the band has a strong and abroad following. It also adds a different element to the song, such as song favorites being somewhat “remixed”. It seems to me that it’s a win, win situation for the band itself with the exception of maybe some waste of time and money if it ends up flopping, don’t forget its true what they say “time is money”, that is more than true inside of a music studio. At the same time it brings up somewhat of a risk, but if you evaluate the business of music almost everything an artist does is considered a risk. As far as the audience goes, they can’t really lose, slip the song on and if you don’t like it then change the track, it’s easy as that.
Ok now it’s your turn, as the reader I need your feedback since this article is an opinionated one. Let me know your thoughts, thoughts on the topic in hand, do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you want to put in your own advice, go ahead it’s a open board, by all means question and comment away, for those of you who are going to ask questions I can answer you back fairly quickly, since it’s a open board I will answer your questions on the site for everyone to read.

Exciting huh…

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-Jason Franquiz

Millsted's "4 songs" with Interview

Third week of January I get an invite from Millsted guitarist (Chris Caramboti) to come by the studio and review Millsted’s new E.P. which was in the process of getting mastered, so I though to myself… if I’m getting invited to Millsted’s studio to review their latest E.P. then I might as well make it count and interview them in the process. Friday night the 26th of January, walking to Millsted’s studio in the 30 degree New York City weather with the distinct smell of midtown Manhattan around 7:00pm, I entered the domain of Millsted. As I walked inside of this musician packed building memories started coming back to me from when I came to Millsted’s private show back in fall of 2006 which was held in this same building, so I pretty much already knew my way around, I got in front of Millsted’s studio door and gave drummer (Pete Belloli) a call to let him know that I’m there, as soon as I walk into the studio I get greeted by guitarist (Robert Dume), Chris and singer (Kelvin Uffre), I also received some of the “greatest and finest” wine ever produced a few minutes after, I forgot the name but whether it was aged one hundred years ago or just made ten days ago in Washington Heights it was some pretty damn good wine and apparently it gets you wasted pretty quick.
After about a half hour of conversation, wine and cigarettes the guys put on their new E.P. on the stereo for me to have a listen and with every song I took note of. Listening to some of the songs I quickly noticed that I’ve already heard two of the 4 new songs already because there were performed live already, I also noticed right away that these songs sound a lot more straight forward than songs from Millsted’s previous E.P. Brief Case which is not a bad thing of course because theirs always room for some sort of change and change doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Something the same that didn’t really change from the previous E.P. Brief Case is the two guitars complimenting each other very well in these songs but then a again that makes up part of Millsted’s signature sound, the bass is very defined and noticeable which is always a plus, and when it comes to drummer (Pete Belloli) and his new drum tracks they are far more powerful and a lot more driven which helps the new E.P. overall with the more straight forward sound. With the new band line-up you can hear the different elements put together in this new E.P. it’s always good to listen to a band with a very diverse back round and every element counts.
After I took a listen to the new E.P. Bassist (Sam Fernandez) walks into the studio and right then and there every member of Millsted was officially in the building. Shortly after setting up some equipment they performed the new songs live as I took more notations. This was actually very good for me considering the fact that I can pick up every element of this new E.P. both recorded and live, and let me say that it does make a difference, for instance when it comes to the guitars on the record you can’t really figure who’s who between Chris and Rob but you tend to get a better understanding when you see the songs played live, well when it comes to the two guitarists I did learn an interesting factor while the songs were being played live, I learned that both Chris and Rob play an equal part by playing both rhythm and lead, there is no real role they both take on this challenge which is great. Another thing I noticed while Millsted played their new songs live is their use for effects such as; slides (guitar), keyboards, a nice line of guitar effect processors… etc. Overall the new E.P. is different from the previous E.P. Brief Case but still maintaining the recognizable Millsted sound, it’s worth putting money out to buying it and supporting these guys, also this new E.P. can be considered as an improvement from previous recordings.
The interview itself was very entertaining considering the fact that Kelvin… well lets just say that he had a little bit too much to drink before hand, aside from that everyone was cool and up-beat (no pun intended). Even though Kelvin was moderately intoxicated he held up the interview fairly well, as you will tell as you read the interview in itself. The phrase of the entire interview was the infamous “that’s off the record” for the guys of Millsted, every time a joke or something totally redundant was said that pertained nothing with the topic in hand they would immediately blur out “and that was off the record”, which made the interview process that much more entertaining in many levels. To conclude details about this very interesting interview I’d say that the guys were very comfortable within their own element and they were very excepting to my presence and made me feel “at home” so to speak.

Now for your reading and viewing pleasure here is the interview I conducted with Millsted which is below, read on…

Millsted interview:

Jason: How’s the film crew coming along with the documentary?
Chris: Well they’re done filming.
Kelvin: They came to a bunch of our shows, they came to our listening party and like they make you feel really comfortable it’s like they are not even there, those guys are great, their Rob’s friends, my friends.
Rob: Yeah they’ve been filming with us since September.
Kelvin: They really care about the end product you know, they care about what their doing, it’s not just the fucking product, they care about the vision and it all goes together with the music.

Jason: What are your plans for this documentary? Is it coming out with the new E.P. or is it to be released by itself?
Chris: Well what we’re doing is an electronic press kit which is just eight minutes of footage that we have and then we’re going to do a DVD which is like about a half hour and then maybe use some clips for a music video or whatever.

Jason: It seems like Millsted had the occasional “run in” with the club Lit Lounge, first with your show getting cut short back in February of 2006 and then once again in October of 2006 with the sound girl cutting the power during the last song. Are you guys planning to play that venue anymore?
[Surrounding up-roaring laughter] Kelvin: Well we’ll be there in April, what happen was that the Killtakers set was long and it took a little bit of time, and by the time we got up there they wanted to cut our set short aside from that electronica band having to get on stage, so we got up there and we were almost over and they were like you have one more song left and we decided to keep going because we have that punk rock appeal, like if you book us we are going to play what we said we are going to play, regardless of the repercussions you know.
Rob: [While laughing] You should tell him what happened after we tried to play that last song.
Kelvin: Yeah, the bouncer came up and he was like shoving me and I was shoving him and the sound woman was really upset that I called her a bitch and Chris called her a bitch and umm… [With Chris interrupting]
Chris: [In laughter] it was my birthday I do what I want.
Kelvin: So we told the bouncer; she tried to cut us off while we were playing our set and it’s over. The bouncer was really cool about it and everything was fine.
Chris: Everything is fine now.
Kelvin: Yeah so we play there in April.

Jason: You guys are playing the Thrash Bar on the 29th of March with Devola and Near Forever, how do you guys like playing with both Devola and Near Forever?
Chris: I don’t think we ever played with Devola, not my cup of tea personally, but Near Forever is very awesome I really like them, their good friends; Mike produced the last E.P. Brief Case.

Jason: I noticed that you guys like to dress somewhat formal when playing shows; it’s something unique and something not a lot of bands do, why do you guys do it?
Pete: [While laughing] some of us.
Kelvin: We go to vintage shops and cheap places and find cool things and the whole shtick about it is like when we recorded that E.P. with mike the music sounded really lounge-y like really downtown New York, night time New York soul shit and we were like; if we are going to put on a show we’re going to put on a show you know, regardless if we are a small band or a big band.
Rob: We tried it one time and it worked and people started noticing it, so we kind of just kept with it, like we kept rolling with the punches on that one.
Kelvin: The whole opposition with it though, is like we’re not a “fashion core” band we’re there in our suits fucking getting sweaty and rockin’ out, I ripped shirts, ties like that’s the whole esthetic.
Chris: It’s like a misconception of what people would see on stage and then what they hear.

Jason: What do we need to get ready for on this new album? Give me a little summery on it.
Chris: Very dark.
Pete: Wait the new one? …it’s very good.
Chris: It’s just very dark, I don’t think we wanted it to be dark or we made the music to be dark.
Kelvin: The whole thing was that we were going through some dark times, not negatively but with just experimenting with different things and writing really dark songs, there’s not so much screaming on the record, the songs, the effects, the dark chords.
Chris: It’s more straight forward than the last record.
Kelvin: Plus Sam’s addition is amazing because this guy plays that fret like he’s plays the clitoris, we just stop and watch Sam.
Rob: Even at shows, I stopped to watch him at shows.

Jason: Recording wise, where did you guys record this new E.P. and who worked on it as far as mixing, mastering and producing?
Chris: Dave Andronice, he recorded all these bands for the scene out in the Bronx called the Bronx underground, he was cheap and his sound was getting better as I kept on listening to the recordings, we were very, very comfortable in there, he brought out some shit in all of us and it sounds really good, much better than the last E.P. we put out.

Jason: Seeing Millsted live what can we expect with the songs in general? Are you guys mixing the old stuff with the new stuff or is it just going to consist of the new songs only?
Kelvin: A dick in a box [stands up and does dick in a box dance jokingly]
Chris: It’s just a mix with this E.P. and the last E.P. with the first E.P. we usually rotate between two songs, we’ll play one a show. But we did re-record a song on the first E.P. that’s going to appear on the new E.P. which is a lot better than the older version, there’s new life in that song. So I guess we do the rotation thing but it’s mostly the last year and a half of the band, like new stuff that’s not even on this E.P. like this song called “Sad Satan” that we just did for a college project for a couple of friends of ours and that’s up on myspace to download but it hasn’t been released on anything as of yet, but I’m sure that we are going to go back and re-record it.

Jason: You guys are one of the busiest bands that I know of in this period of time personally, especially when it comes to playing live shows. I highly doubt it but are you guys taking a short break anytime soon?
Rob: [Jokingly] If Chris lets us.
Kelvin: [In humor] Jason help me, I’ve got lacerations on my back. No but really, a break is what? Not doing music and doing other bullshit when you can be making hot music, like why not just work your ass off, it’s not really a job to us we enjoy doing it.
Rob: We took a mini break for like 2 weeks at the end of the year, at the very tail end just to kind of regroup, you know recharge the battery but like we’re right back at it.
Chris: Yeah it was like a month off just to rehearse the songs, but that’s probably as far as it would ever go, we’re here to get signed and do big things and we can’t stop, we’re nobody to take a break.
Pete: You take a break and you fuck yourself.
Rob: Yeah we can’t afford to take a break at this level.
Chris: [While laughing] When we’re triple platinum then we can take a break. I think any underground band that’s not really known or who is just local and takes a break it just leads to disaster and it leads to them performing really bad, not practicing and not being around each other it would seem like a job almost. When we took that break in December we rehearsed a lot and we got into the studio to record this E.P.
Pete: It wasn’t like a dead break, we still met up with everybody.
Kelvin: We’re nobody now so we have to bust our asses and we love to do it.
Pete: You have to like who you’re in a band with or it’s not going to work.
Rob: We have a blast; we hang out outside of the studio which makes it so much cooler.

Check Millsted out here: www.myspace.com/millsted

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-Jason Franquiz

The “Devola” virus

As much bands there are in NYC there are many female fronted bands, but probably the most noticeable of those bands is female fronted band Devola. Having a bit of a line-up change in late 2006 current band members include; Chuck Dick (Drums), Fancy (Guitar), Nick (Bass) and of course lead singer “Elizanightmare”. Devola released an album on September 27th of 2006 with 5 tracks, which is also available for purchase on iTunes for $9.99 or available individually for $0.99 each song. Devola’s album Where the Stories Stay is recorded fairly well and shows the “catchiness” of their songs, as terrifying as it may sound Devola songs are the type of songs that will not leave you alone when you’re trying to sleep, but I never said that was a bad thing of course, one example of this is the bridge of “I don’t want him but I’ll take him” has this back and forth kind of music moment between the guitar and bass complimenting each other very well while Elizanightmare sings her troubles over the on-going melodies then this leads to a powerful ending to the song which is dealt with a rhythm driven bass, palm muted guitar, double bass drums and mood driven vocals… again, very catchy and stays stuck in your head while your trying to have jello shots in the corner of the bar, which brings me to another point later on while explaining Devola’s live show. Yes people you read it just right, jello shots! Anyway if I’m writing an article about Devola you must know well enough to know that they are worth giving a listen to.
Devola’s live show is great and an experience in all aspects to witness. Lead singer Elizanightmare is quite active with the crowd and very influential by the crowds reactions and it shows, in the start of the song “I don’t want him but I’ll take him” Elizanightmare will not let the song start until every hand in the crowd is clapping the tempo of the song in the beginning, talk about crowd participation. Devola feeds off the energy of their audience during their live show and that’s always a plus considering that so many people are into this band and also come out to support Devola, a big reason is because of the simple fact that Devola is well known in the New York City music scene, in other words if you check out shows at these NYC venues and you still have not heard about the band known as Devola then you my friend have been living under a rock. Remember earlier I said something about jello shots? Yeah Devola has this thing, mind you… a thing that I have never seen a band do at their live show, Devola invites free jello shots for the people that come out to the show (limited supplies only of course), that’s what I call even more motivation to get your lazy ass up and come out to a show.
May 6th, 2006 the Thrash Bar in Brooklyn, NY, I was doing my usual round shooting bands when I noticed Devola’s name on the bill and I thought to myself; great, I get to finally check Devola out. I look up on stage and I notice hardly any equipment except for two acoustic guitars and three stools, so I thought to myself acoustic session? Elizanightmare walks up on stage sporting a nervous look and starts to make an announcement about how they are going through band changes and that this set is going to become an acoustic set, with the drummer of Devola playing guitar, kudos my friend… kudos. The set turned out to be really well; as the cliché goes “they got lemons, so they made lemonade” they made the best of it and totally pulled it off, I wouldn’t mind checking out a Devola show if they decided to book an acoustic show, in fact that’s not such a bad idea. Overall the current line-up is tight as a drum, with an odd timed drummer, melodic guitarist, responsive bassist and a very mood influenced singer. Make sure to check these guys and girl out, they are worth your time. Devola plays the Thrash Bar once again on March 29th with two previously reviewed bands back in December 2006 Near Forever and Milsted, come check out the show… besides, I’ll be there too. Thrash Bar is located on 256 Grand St between Driggs Ave and Roebling St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718-599-1000). Subway: L to Bedford Ave. Don't forget to check out Devola on their Myspace site: (www.myspace.com/devola)

“All is fair in love & war”
-Love and War

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene.-Jason Franquiz

In Extremis "Absolutes & Opposites"

In Extremis “Absolutes & Opposites”-

Coney Island’s Siren Fest July 7th 2006, as I just finished shooting Near Forever’s 40 minute set on a hot cloudy July afternoon I walked back to my camera bag putting my Nikon D50 D-SLR away, I looked over my right shoulder to notice a young woman helping the drummer set up his equipment on stage, as I turned my head back to my equipment Near Forever’s bass player (Eric Velasco) taps me on my back and faintly whispers to me; “that’s a lucky guy… some chick is helping this guy set up” assuming that she was a band girlfriend or something of the sort, I turn back at him and say “yeah that’s pretty nice to have”. Only to find a few minutes later that it was the lead singer of In Extremis (Michelle). With a beer in my hand and my equipment finally put away I leaned up against the small gate which happened to be stage right, and then I witnessed new (to me) live music that I enjoyed very much. If you go out to enough shows you know just as well as I do that it’s hard to “run into” a good band, a band that wows you, and that is also part of the reason why most people tend to go see bands that they already know of, so they won't have to deal with "wasting time" on sucky bands they are not aware of.
With a 7-string guitar and a 5-string bass screaming out of cabs set up on stage and the band along with microphones set up on the floor instead of the stage, accompanying the “raised “ cabs was drummer (Hiam “beatbox” Shuri) using the entire stage as a drum riser. The set was played very strong and energetic overall, while playing the song “Fcuk Friends” during the mid-ending of the song when it turns really hardcore a small pit actually opened up which pretty much didn’t surprise me considering that the crowd was very much into this band from the moment they started to play. Once and a while singer (Michelle) would belt out powerful yet faint screams during the set, which can also be heard on the In Extremis album Absolutes & Opposites. The album itself sounds very good in quality and on point in general, with 8 songs you can’t go wrong for the selling price of $5 bucks, the case is also constructed very well with a lot of work put into it. The album was mixed and mastered by “The Jerry”, the same person to invite these wonderful bands to Coney Island’s Siren Fest, the record with mixed and mastered fairly well also. This is a band worth listening to, I know good music when it slaps me in the face even though my friends beg to differ, but take my word on this one. In Extremis is a very interesting and skillful band, and they are based out of NYC, with that being said it is your duty to check out your local music scene and don’t miss out. Check out In Extremis here: http://myspace.com/inextremis

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene.-Jason Franquiz

The Up Coming Year (2007)

The Up Coming Year (2007)-

Ah yes, a New Year of great performances followed by after parties, drunken madness, the occasional and great “open bar” and new music, as well as old favorites. A lot of up’s and down’s of the 2006 year, like band break-up’s new members hectic touring, and new contacts are likely to effect the up coming year 2007 in many ways, good and bad. Musicians and spectators alike are peeking their heads out little by little just to see what the music of 2007 has to offer, with 2007 peeking back at us being that it’s a week away, it looks unpredictable. Two bands to look out for in the up coming year and that has a bright looking future aside from the dense unpredictable fog oozing out of 2007 are both Millsted and Near Forever, with Millsted putting out a very strong E.P. titled (Brief Case) in mid 2006 with powerful songs such as “Flux” and a very crowd dancing influenced “The Culprit”, powered by very different and original chords and guitar leads followed by a very unique and somewhat deep voiced Kelvin Uffre hovering over intense melodies, be sure to check Millsted out on February 9th at the Thrash bar located at 256 Grand st. Brooklyn, NY. (www.myspace.com/millsted)
The next band to look for in the up coming year is a band based out of a wide spread area in NY, known as Near Forever. Near Forever a very influential band to the arts of “music” and a mix of a lot of things boiled into one band; progressive, soul, just a hint of hardcore mixed in, as well as a lot of other things. Four talented musicians, starting with very diverse guitarist Mike intertwined with an on point rhythm section led by Eric (Bass) and Phillip (Drums) and lead singer Randy firing intense melodies out of the non-smoking lungs. Near Forever also released an E.P. in mid 2006 tilted (On Borrowed Time), with very melodic songs such as “Waiting” and “Run” with an explosion of energy especially during their live show, they also played the east coast leg of the 2006 Warped Tour. Be sure to check them out in 2007. (www.myspace.com/nearforever)
All in all it’s going to look like a great year, be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local scene.-Jason Franquiz